Here is another dumb question, hopefully not as inflammatory as my last one.

The reason I ask is that one of my players recently told me that she left the RP enforced Mud she was playing becuse she got 'burnt out' by the RP.

By this she didn't mean the usual player-relation problems that are rampant in most muds, even those that are not really RP intensive like my own. We have our fair share of Drama Queens and Griefers, and the frequent clashes between those often results in one or both parties leaving the mud, at least for a while. And I remember myself leaving a mud that I rather enjoyed playing because a relation to a male player got to be a burden. (He wasn't sexually harrassing me or anything, it's just that he was a lot more 'interested' than I was, and virtually expected my full attention all the time, while I would much rather have roleplayed with others). Eventually it lead to me first logging off as soon as I spotted him, and later quitting the Mud altogether.

But this wasn't what she was referring to. She meant the actual RP environment, the background story or scenario, or whatever you'd call it. Apparently the mud was heavily RP enforced, and had some dark theme, with persistant evil threats to the world. It also had no OOC channels whatsoever, so there was no chance to vent, and I think this was part of what wore her down, even though she told me she had first been totally immersed in the RP.

I guess what I am getting at is: Do all ardent Roleplayers prefer a 100% IC environment? Or is the option of forming OOC friendships and occasionally getting a break from the RP, by discussing football or films or other non RP related topics in an OOC room or channel, something that even confirmed RP addicts sometimes secretly long for?

In my experience, I've found that many roleplay-heavy MUDs also have a very active forum community where players can kick back and relax. Although IC information is usually prohibited on said forums, so you won't get to know which character a poster plays, the potential to form OOC friendships is still very much there due to the common interests shared by all. It works out nicely because there's a clear delineation between IC play on the MUD server and OOC socialization on a web forum.

Also, at SoI, a roleplay-enforced MUD, they have an OOC lounge players enter with a randomly generated avatar where any number of things can go on, from guides answering newbies' questions, to player-staff meetings, to fully fledged stagings of Star Wars spoofs.

These different options are kept separate from the gameworld itself so that players can opt in to participate in a little fun with others, while the hardcore roleplayers can stay immersed.

I wouldn't call them Ardent if they do not prefer a 100% IC environment Tyche. I would call them lazy.

Lazy my ass.

She asked what "ardent role-players" preferred. Those demanding 100% IC environments are not ardent about role-playing at all. One should be careful not to mistake those who are easily distracted, unreasonable and exhibit asocial and borderline sociopathic tendencies with those passionate for role-playing.

Those prefering 100% IC interaction are also those who tend to objectify people. For example, a guy who reacts violently if someone touches his new car. Don't mistake that for passion for cars. Role-playing is a social game not a single player console game. Someone who flips out if someone farts or asks you to pass him a beer in a role-playing game isn't ardent about role-playing. They're asocial control freaks that won't get invited back to play with those who do passionately love role-playing with real people.

They're asocial control freaks that won't get invited back to play with those who do passionately love role-playing with real people.

I'd have to agree with most of what Tyche said. Many roleplayers that I've spoken to prefer to have a way to communicate with friends they've made in the game, in game. Not via Messenger, or AIM...via the game.
There are plenty of people who don't like global channels, as well. They're generally the kinds that log on only when they're ready to play.
I, myself, prefered when my players would log on just to enjoy the atmosphere/game, not just when they felt like "playing." It's more like a community that way, instead of a bunch of people trying to be the one to "win."
Just my two cents.

Traditionally, roleplay consists of a series of 'poses'. Each character makes a 'pose' - that is, writes a roughly paragraph-length description of speech actions, etc. which the character performs. Special commands allow players to print OOC messages, distinguished by a prefixed tag from IC action. This medium borrows traits from both improvisational stage acting and writing.

hink of your MU* as a stage. Each room is a unique set. The character you've created is costumed, poised, equipped with props, and ready to act. But the real stage has a well-groomed and attired audience sitting on the other side of the proscenium, waiting to be entertained. The witnesses to your performance, though, will be the other players. And every other player, just like you, sits at their computer terminal, assimilating and judging the messages and poses that scroll down their screen. And they want to be entertained, too.

MU* players are not interested, however, in watching two other characters act out scenes from Death of a Salesman , fine as the acting may be. MU* players want their character to become a living, vital part of the big improvisational troupe that uses as its stage the dozens or hundreds of sets available.

When players come together with the characters they've created for this shared experience, it can be sheer magic. I hope that at one time or another you've experienced the thrill of losing yourself to your character. There you are, sitting at your terminal, playing a game of make-believe. Suddenly the action begins...perhaps it's a conflict between two personalities that your character must stop. Perhaps it's a birth, or a wedding. Perhaps an evil sorceress, her lips brightly enamelled with poisoned lipstick, attempts to give her wayward daughter the Kiss of Death.

Your real-life self becomes absorbed with the proceedings, and Real Life fades out. You begin to think the way your character thinks. Your body responds physically the way your character's virtual body responds. You breathe more quickly. Your palms sweat. You laugh aloud, or bite your lip with tension. And then you crash back to reality to find the boss or lab attendant or your significant other giving you a quizzical look.

This feeling isn't unusual. It's the creative high. Fiction writers experience it when they're working on a story. The Stanislavski method of acting is based on submerging your personal, physical self to a character's responses and rhythms. Ask an artist you know who deals with creating characters what they experience during a really good performance or workday. They'll say, "It was wonderful...the character just kind of took over, and the real me just sat there, watching what happened." Honest, they will. They'll use those exact words, too. Money back guarantee. (Now, exactly how much money did you pay for these observations?)

A MUSH is often said to mean multi-player shared hallucination. MUSHes descend from the program TinyMUD[?]. MUSHes date back to the early 1990s. They are more directly concerned with role-playing (acting) than MUDs, dispensing with the experience systems. Instead, players focus on creating their character's life as accurately as possible. Members of the MUSH family include PernMUSH, PennMUSH, TinyMUSH, TinyMUSE and TinyMUX.

You may find that some places have rules that go too far to your liking. After all, you're going there to have fun and play, and why do people take things so seriously anyway?

The rules exist because the people running the game, and at least some of the people playing the game, want and need the rules to exist so that the game is a reflection of the type of roleplay they want. It doesn't mean they are trying to squelch your creativity; but rather to create a world in which this creativity can thrive. If it is really outside of your preferences, it could be that you're in the wrong world, and need to find another game/rp arena that better suits your preferences.

In the real world, suppose you decide you want to open a Shakespearean Improvisational theater. You get all of the costumes ready, work on the sets, and find people with an interest in Shakespearean theater to join. Once it gets rolling, everyone's having a grand time acting out their favorite Shakespearean characters and flourishing in Middle English fashion. Then one day, along comes a guy in a black leather jacket, apparently impersonating Andrew Dice Clay. Then a perfectly nice lady arrives, but all she wants to do is talk about her daughter's latest ballet recital in New York City. This happens twelve times a day, in various forms. Your Shakespearean improv people are beginning to get mad. They either go hide out in the back closet somewhere or they leave altogether. One day, you look around at your theater, and see a hodge-podge of people, most of whom bear no resemblance to a Shakespearean play.

You ought to broaden your horizons. There is much much more to role-playing than Diku HnS and Roleplay-enforced Diku HnS.

I'd say yes, the RP can get too intense. Heck, Maddock got to me after a while... nothing between me and the horizon but dust... Other games, a popular WoD known as a "tough city" largely because the Staff didn't believe life or games should be fair, and as a result you couldn't trust anyone you played with; an ST:NG where people were a bit too correct and too correcting and everyone lived in fear of an anachronism...

MUSHes, which judging from the logs, have a similar style of play to Molly's MUD, generally have extensive OOC areas where players can plan plots, give lessons, take interviews, exchange coded objects, and read past logs. They've had multi-level bulletin boards and threaded @mail for ten years, one MUX even has a Pine extension. There usually are many channels, sometimes you even have a choice of talking about computers on the Mac, Windows, or Linux channel. "Tells" take multiple targets, so you can make your own impromptu channel if needed. All this creates a sense of relaxed community, and also lets you get to know who you're playing with. Players who find it all distracting just turn off the channels and never go "OOC".